January 2009
Just had the rear hatch and bumper professionally repaired after some damage.
Sounds like a daft question but how well should I expect the paint to match in these days? What's the experience out there?
The original is a metallic gunmetal grey colour on a 2 year old car. To my eye the hatch and bumper are now just very, very slightly lighter and more silver. I don't think most people would notice but I can especially now I'm aware of it.
So was wondering if that's about par for the course? Am I just being unrealistic and should accept that a repair will always show? If not would putting it right could cause more problems anyway? Read more
I'm sure I've read about this before either on this forum or on HJ's Telegraph column but couldn't find anything - sorry!
Last night I unfortunately hit a dog that ran into the road. The dog was fairly badly injured, but fortunately the owner turned up shortly afterwards (the dog had slipped its collar earlier, and he had been looking for it for some time). He didn't blame me even slightly for the incident thankfully, and took the dog to a vet's. I have the dog owner's name and phone number but not address (he was understandably in a hurry).
The accident has been reported to the police (I called them before the owner turned up) and I've been told I don't need to attend a police station.
There's some significant damage to my front bumper and I'm going to need to get it replaced (it's a 04 reg Ford Focus with integrated fog lights in the bumper, so not a massively cheap job I'm guessing). The car seems completely driveable.
I'm sure I remember reading that in these cases the dog's owner is liable for this kind of damage (via their home or pet insurance obviously). Can anyone confirm this?
Also, does anyone recommend whether I should either go via my insurance company and let them sort everything out, via a main dealer's 'Accident Assist' scheme, letting them sort out dealing with insurance, or by dealing directly with the dog's owner?
Any advice gratefully received! Read more
whereby it used to try and savage me every year
Fair Do's and respect to you and the dog !
I would fel responsible in most scenarios - Mrs P's usual binary view of the world is softened by our new Cocker - she challenged me only yesterday for daring to think of buying cheap food for him.
The thread about flashing oncoming Xenon-headlit cars prompts me to ask whether anyone can recommend night-driving specs to reduce glare.
I'm not au fait with the most recent issue of the Highway Code but seem to remember I'd heard that the Code's advice (exhortation?) is not to use such glasses. However, I don't get a headache (from oncoming headlights) when I wear my old pound-shop ones; and when I accidentally leave them at home, I do. (They're now falling apart, hence my searching for a replacement pair.)
Thank you.
AF. Read more
You can read all about Night Driving Glasses by clicking this link.
It is an Online Opticians and it explains in detail about what you should be doing to improve your vision/driving at night....
I have a touran 1.9 tdi (105 bhp) 57k miles with full VW dealer service history on the longlife service program.
It suffered a breakdown 2 months out of warranty and it has taken almost two weeks for the dealer to come to some kind of proposal to pay for the repairs needed. The car lost power while accelerating around 50 mph and a cloud a black smoke bellowed out the back and all kinds of lights lit up on the dash, we stopped the car asap. RAC (via VW Assist) surmised that the oil seal on the turbo had failed as the engine had no oil remaining in the sump and the rear of the car was covered. VW dealer sort of confirmed this although said they wouldn't know for sure until they started work on it. As it is out of warranty, they approached VW for a goodwill payment towards repairs. They say it requires a new turbo, catalytic converter and exhaust system. VW have offered 50% as a goodwill payment. This leaves us will a bill of around £1,400.
Is this resonable? Do I have any other lines to pursue? I have stalled them as they have had the car for 10 days (no courtesy car offered) while they've been waiting for an answer from VW.
Any advice gratefully received. Read more
Having just purchased an Audi 2.0tdi (on LL servicing as well..gasp!) , I'm always interested in the 'leave the turbo to cool' argument.
My own experience is that the diesel traffic cars I drive get thrashed down a m/way/around towns and are turned off straight away. We've never had a problem with them. Despite this, I still sit on the drive for a minute or two when I get home. Drive the wife mad.
Hello all
I would be grateful for some advice please. I'm trying to understand the implication of having a company car. I think I understand most of the pitfalls (and benefits) but am failing miserably with the Benefit in Kind aspect.
For example, on What Car company car tax calculator (and others), I get a figure for the tax payable at 20% or 40% per annum. Simple enough. But there's another amount, usually around £4K pa which is the Benefit in Kind.
Do company car users pay the Benefit in Kind and if so, do they pay the full tax and the BIK together? Or just the tax and the employer pays the BIK?
Cheers.
Shaun Read more
I think you are making the mistake that a lot of people do in working out whether a company car is better of taking the cash for car allowance.
In your example of being offered £4,800 which gives you £2,880 after tax you also need to remember that you will not be paying the company car tax that you would be with the company car. Assume this is £155 p/m (£1860 pa) then what you have actually got to play with is £4,740 per year or £400 per month - like your brother said.
I'm not saying that its better to take the cash, getting a company car certainly is less hassle and gives you peace of mind over things like servicing, but I think that a lot of people misjudge the value of the cash for car alternative...
use this useful link to work out the cash alternative on a particular car....
extranet.lvl.co.uk/hosting/carportal/
I own a late 2002 BMW 525d SE auto. Recently the car started running very poorly. I took the car into the local BMW specialist (not dealer) who diagnosed low compression!!
On stripdown it transpired that two of the swirl flaps had failed & parts had passed into the cylinders causing damage to one pistion & several valves. The repair is going to cost £2k & the mechanic said I was lucky!!
Swirl flaps are small butterfly valves located in the plastic inlet manifold of the engine.
Discussing the problem with the mechanic & searches on the internet have shown that this to be a common problem on all 6 cylinder BMW diesel engines upto 3 litres - so a definate design fault. In some cases BMW have paid for replacement engine & repairs - but this appears to be selective.
My car has completed 90k miles with full service history, but not BMW.
My question is this;
Do I have any recourse with BMW - after all this is a known design issue?
I appreciate that warranty claims have long gone but surely BMW have a right to inform owners of such issues (eg replace manifold at xxxxx miles)??
My car will be returned this week. I could not afford to put into a main dealer for investigation & repair. However the work is done to BMW stds & with BMW parts.
Thanks in advance.
Chris.
Read more
One of the best, if not the best engine remanufacturing company in the UK.
We currently have a Corsa D loan car. Fine car in many ways, but not nearly as easy to park as such a compact car should be because even though I'm tall, I can't see any part of the bonnet from the drivers seat.
Made me wonder how many other car are like this now - so, can you see the bonnet of your car from the drivers seat? Read more
slightly off topic...
At the building where I used to work some intellectual giant came up with the idea of sprucing up the multistory carpark, with a nice gallon or several of semi-gloss white paint.
Very clever - considering a lot of the cars here are white.
After a week of people bashing their cars against the walls and pillars, because they could no longer see where the car ended and use it as a reference point when manouevering, due to the white-on-white scenario, the management had to repaint a 3ft stripe along the wall in dark gray!
Afternoon all.
Have posted before in realtion to water leak on passengers side, fixed but now another problem.
Went to go to work this morning and found that the drivers footwell was full of water. It had literally puddled under the pedals.
Checked that all windows were shut and sun roof closed tight, they were. Am now scratching my head to think of where this could be coming from.
Any clues and how to repair.
Many thanks in advance.
Christopher Read more
OK, a bit of work for a dry day I think.
Many thanks for your responce.
CV
"Another point, it is sensible when challenging and pay a little extra for recorded delivery.
I did this some weeks ago with the ticket I got from the warden who said my blue badge was forged. I had no response to my letter of complaint but last week got a 'notice to owner'. I spent some time searching for the
recorded delivery details with no luck. The point of this post is that I sent a copy of the letter and another one today and was given a ' printed out till receipt' at the post office. I had been searching for the old red one that we all know. I must have chucked the original along with other similar looking receipts....watch out in future"
I briefly posted the above last year that I had been given a £35 PCN near home by an attendant who told me that my badge was forged and in any case I shouldn't be parking a 'non-disabled car' in a'disabled bay. I wrote a letter of complaint about the warden at the time,
I showed my blue badge to a 'proper' traffic warden in Manchester the following day, asking him if he could see anything 'forged' about it. My letter, sent recorded, was ignored. My wife later got a 'notice to owner' (it was her car) which I filled in, saying I was the driver and badgeholder and sent back with a copy of the complaint letter, also recorded. Last week a letter arrived addressed to her saying they had checked and certified that she had a valid badge ( she doesn't!) saying the PCN was issued 'because the enforcement officer thought the it was a forgery' No apology, of course, and a final insult..'Should you receive a similar ticket in the future, we may not be able to cancel.' So that's all right then, if I park my legal car with my legal badge in a legal bay then I might get a fine because some half-wit attendant thinks he has forensic training ! I've a good mind to write to the paper !
Ted
Edited the original post in so as to give some context Read more
I posted a story once about getting a parking fine rescinded in Robin Hood's Bay. I had a 3 day pass and I got ticketed 10 minutes after it had run out, as the warden knew there would be easy pickin's at 9.00 am. I issued dire warnings about never going there again - and then you'll be sorry - and certain observations on the warden's behaviour and they cancelled the ticket.
But they also warned me about not being let off next time!
Hi All
My trusty and economical mazda 626 is nearing retirement age. After covering 160k uneventful (but slightly boring) miles, I'm looking for something to replace it.
I am thinking of getting an E39 5 series.
Will be looking at paying ~£3-4k, so would be looking at something like a 00/01 reg.
I do around 12k miles/year, so excellent fuel efficiency isn't a major issue, nor is blistering performance. I currently get around 34mpg from my current car.
I am tending towards the petrol models, but is there any overriding reason why I should get a diesel, or are petrol models more reliable/cheaper to run (fuel apart)?
Does anyone have a recommendation on what is the best engine/spec to get? I was thinking along the lines of a 523i SE, which seems to be a reasonable compromise of 30+mpg with 170bhp and most of the ones I've seen online have decent kit as standard.
Lastly, is there anything significant to look out for on these cars?
Thanks
Jonathan Read more
I, too, had a couple of Xantia's before my e39 530D. The 1.9td I had suffered a cambelt snap, well within spec. mileage, the other was an hdi 110 which suffered a head gasket failure. With these 2 cars, driving was something you did/a chore, not an enjoyment. Don't get me wrong, I'm no speeding nutcase, it's just the e39 is far more pleasant to drive.
Anyway, back to topic, as stated I've got diesel version, but also a friend has the v8 4.4 petrol version. Both are autos, he's lucky to see 25mpg on a run, roughly 17/18mpg around town, mine does 45-50mpg on a run and 33-35mpg around town. My friend did have a prob with overheating when he first bought it, this was traced in about 10 mins. to a faulty thermostat, this was changed, now no worries.
Any shimmy, check tyres pressure + wheel balance, if still there, get a quick look over from a main agent, this might sound crazy but seriously, they've never charged me to give a look over and a correct opinion on that area (worn bushes in my case)
Rear ball joints can wear, put that down to the plethora of speed humps this country now has, about an hour and a half from a decent indie.
ABS module failure, well, this really is luck of the gun, or should I say, highly unlikely luck of the gun.
The pixel problem if it occurs, can be fixed by others or by yourself. It might only happen once in a blue moon though.
Crankshaft/camshaft sensors, I suppose this could happen......at some point......it is an engine after all.
Handbrakes can seize up a bit if it's an auto and the handbrake doesn't get used much/at all.
I've heard that the cars can stop all together, if no fuel is put in the tank. But as this could affect other cars as well, it's probably not worth mentioning or scaremongering over.
As for German versus French engineering, try doing a 'door test'. Opening and closing the front/back doors and listen to the difference! Not conclusive by any means, but amusing all the same!
Browse
That's exactly what they should have done. I understood it to be called "blending in"